Caught in the Middle  Chapter 5
by Sunarlily
Summary: Food, fun...adult intervention...and then more fun.


Chapter 5

_ Where is he?_

Vanessa's leg jiggled up and down as she sat in Corbin's hotel room. The other members of the cast were watching some TV, but Vanessa couldn't concentrate on it. It was now almost seven o'clock, and Zac hadn't come back or called her in hours. Carol had come back to the movie set really upset, and told them that Zac and Janelle ditched her and the camera crew. Everyone else thought it was really funny. _Yeah, real hilarious,_ Vanessa thought. _He's out there without any protection. What if he gets mobbed by fans? Lost in __the city? Kidnapped and held for ransom by terrorists?_  
There was a knock on the door, and Corbin got up to answer it. "Where have you been?" Corbin pulled Zac inside, looked up and down the hallway, and quickly shut the door. "Do you know how long Carol's been looking for you? She's really pissed."  
"I know, I know," Zac said. "Hey, do you have any cologne? I'm out."  
"Yeah sure…hey…" Corbin stopped on the way to his dresser and eyed Zac suspiciously. "What for?" Zac just grinned. "Dude, you're going out with her again?"  
"The day isn't up yet!" Zac exclaimed. "We're just gonna go get some dinner…and hang out for a while. Cologne, please?"  
As Corbin handed it to him, Vanessa stood up and went over to Zac. "Zac, are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, Carol was really mad earlier…and you could get mobbed by fans…or get lost-"  
"Relax, V. I know this city backwards and forwards, and it's getting dark. It's not like we're going to the mall or anything." Zac turned and looked at himself in the mirror, his excitement showing through his shining eyes.  
"Zac-"  
"Mo-om," he said slowly, turning to look at her. When she frowned, Zac placed his hands on her shoulders. "Don't worry, we'll be fine. Now I've gotta go before Carol comes looking for me." Zac moved toward the door, and when he opened it, Ashley called his name. When he looked back at her, she smiled. "You really like her, don't you?" she asked.  
Zac smiled. "She's amazing." He looked up and down the hallway to make sure the coast was clear, then looked back at them. "I was never here." With a James Bond-esque somersault, he went out the door and disappeared.  
"I swear, that boy falls in love at least once a month," Monique said.  
"I can tell he really likes her though," Ashley said. "She seemed really nice…and gorgeous. Her clothes were so cute."  
Vanessa was silent, still standing where Zac had left her, arms crossed over her middle. _Her clothes weren't _that _cute._  
Suddenly, there was another knock on the door. Corbin opened it and Zac came back in. "Hey, I almost forgot." He handed Corbin a slip of paper.  
Corbin opened it. "281-869-7561? What's this?"  
"It's Tori's phone number." Corbin stared at him in shock. "She just turned 17. She's a Senior because she skipped the eighth grade." Zac punched Corbin lightly in the arm. "She thinks you're cute." Corbin stood there, still in shock as Zac left again.  
"Tori? Isn't that one of Janelle's friends? The one on the tape?" Lucas asked.  
"Yeah," Corbin said slowly, staring at the small piece of paper in his left hand. He then looked up to the ceiling and clenched his right hand into a fist. "Yes!"

Janelle covered her mouth so she wouldn't serve Zac any 'see-food' as she laughed. After she chewed and swallowed, she put a hand over her chest. "Oh my god, I can't breathe!" she said, still giggling a little. "So how did you get them back?"  
Zac put his fork down and leaned forward. "Well, the next day we had dress dance rehearsals, so I went on set really early and put whoopee cushions in the cast seats…you know, those red chairs they have around set for us to sit on? I stuck them up in between the seat cushion and the frame of the chair, and the next time they sat down…" He shook his head and chuckled. "It was hilarious."  
"Whoopee cushions?" Janelle rolled her eyes. "Boys are so immature."  
"That's why we have so much fun," Zac said, spearing the last forkful of his spaghetti and eating it. "Man, that was good."  
"I told you." Janelle popped the last piece of her breadstick into her mouth, chewed, swallowed, and wiped her mouth with her napkin. "It's always the old, run-down, kind of dirty looking restaurants that have the best food. Except my Mom's restaurant, of course."  
"Did she teach you how to cook?" Zac asked.  
"My Mom taught me everything she knows, but desserts are my specialty. I can make a double chocolate swirl cake that would make you cry," she said proudly, flipping her hair over her shoulder.  
As Zac laughed, the waiter came over to their table. "Will that be all, sir?"  
Zac looked at Janelle. "Speaking of dessert, do you want any?"  
"I'll take some."  
Zac and Janelle looked around. "Uh oh," Zac said slowly as Carol came walking up to them.  
"Uh oh is right," Carol said sternly. "What were you two thinking of? I can't even imagine what could have happened to you today, all by yourselves out in public…Zac, are you crazy?"  
"We're fine, Carol. We just wanted to hang out without all of the cameras around," Zac explained.  
"Hello? The whole point of you two 'hanging out' today was to capture it on film." She pulled up an empty chair and sat down at the table. "I need pictures for my magazine, Zac." Both Zac and Janelle were silent, but looked really ashamed. Carol sighed. "Fine. Where were you planning on going next?"  
Zac looked at Janelle. "I don't know…"  
"Well, I do," Carol said, standing up. "There's a street carnival going on down by the Lake. Let's go." Zac and Janelle sat there as Carol walked away. When she noticed they hadn't moved, she turned and put her hands on her hips. "Come on, chop chop! I thought you young people were supposed to be youthfully vibrant," she grumbled as they got up from their seats.  
Zac left a fifty dollar bill on the table and followed Janelle out of the restaurant. The same black van was sitting by the curb outside. Carol was talking on her cell phone in the front seat.  
"Do you think she's really mad?" Janelle murmured.  
"Nah, not really. Just annoyed." Zac stepped forward and opened the door of the van. "What are we waiting for? The night's young and so are we!"  
Janelle rolled her eyes as she stepped forward and got inside the van. "You dork."

Zac smiled into the camera, and after taking one more picture with a fan, he shook her Mom's hand and rejoined Janelle.  
"Your cotton candy, sir," she said, handing the pink cloud of sugar back to him.  
"Thank you." He tore off a handful and bit it. "I haven't had cotton candy in a long time. Now I remember why...I can only take so much sweet."  
Janelle plucked it from his hand as he was moving to toss it in a nearby trash can. "That's the problem with boys...always wasting a good potential sugar rush."  
Zac shook his head as she took a bite. "This has been fun."  
Carol came walking up, holding a rather large hot dog slathered with mustard. "And highly profitable...we got some great shots. Now before you two decide to pull a Houdini, we're gonna get out of here." She motioned to Carl, the one cameraman she had brought with her, and he began to pack up. "Please promise you'll both be safe and sound, back at the hotel, by 11 o'clock. Please."  
"I promise," Zac said. He turned to Janelle and asked, "You ready to go?"  
She tossed her finished cotton candy cone in a trash can and nodded. "Yep."  
"You kids have fun," Carol said, and she and Carl walked away.  
"Come on, let's get out of here." Zac took Janelle's hand and led her towards the exit.

"What do you miss the most?"  
Zac raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"  
"I mean...what do you miss about being back home? Going out in public without being screamed at by pre-pubescent girls?"  
"Actually the girls thing isn't all that bad..." He flinched and grinned as Janelle smacked him on the arm. "I don't know...I miss my friends back home the most."  
"Tell me about them," Janelle said.  
The two of them had been driving around on the outskirts of Downtown when Janelle saw a playground. They were now swinging side by side on the big blue metal swing set. Zac dug his feet into the sand and propelled himself backward. "Well, there are 8 of us, including me. Taylor...he's the rebel. I don't even think he remembers his natural hair color anymore. And Jorn, he's gonna be a NBA star one day. As soon as I found out I got the part in HSM, I called him to help me practice. Then there's Chris, he's definitely the clown. He was always the one playing the practical jokes on the substitute teachers in school...but he's surprisingly smart. Bryce is a genius. I swear he'll be working for NASA someday...he really wants to work with computers after college. Shane's really into his skateboarding. He's won a couple of competitions back in Cali, but his ultimate goal in life is to meet Rob Dyrdek. I guess he's the ladies man of our group."  
"Well what about you?" Janelle asked. "I'm sure you got your share of attention from the ladies back home. Don't even try to deny it," she said, reaching over to poke him in the side.  
Zac smiled. "Well, I don't like to brag...no, I'm kidding. But girls tend to go for the 'bad boy' look, and Shane's had that down since the 8th grade." Zac got up from the swing and stood in front of Janelle, his hands deep in his pockets. "Connor is an amazing artist. He's been scribbling on any piece of paper he could get his hands on since...forever. He wants to be a sneaker designer one day."  
"Really? That's cool..."  
"Yeah. And then, there's Bubba." Zac grinned and shook his head. "He's this big, friendly, lovable guy, also pretty good the ladies, probably because he can fill their chocolate adddictions."  
Janelle stood up. "A fellow chef?"  
Zack nodded. "His three cheese lasagna would make you cry. He's been making my birthday cakes since I turned 13."  
Janelle smiled. "Wow, you guys sure sound like a motley crew. How long have you know each other?"  
"We all met in elementary school, so we've been hanging out since then. What about your friends? We all watched that tape they sent in."  
"They still haven't let me see it," Janelle said, walking over to a nearby wooden bench. "But we haven't know each other forever like you guys." They both sat down on the bench, and Zac turned toward her and put an arm along the back of the bench. "I met the twins first. My family moved to Houston when I started the 6th grade, and Kali came up to me one day at lunch and said, 'Your lunch looks really good. Can I have a piece of your chicken?' I was too stunned to say no, so I gave her a piece and she sat down and started talking to me."  
Zac blinked. "You bonded over a piece of chicken?"  
"No...we bonded chocolate cake." When Zac raised an eyebrow, Janelle explained, "Not long after that, Kali, Kendra and I were assigned a group English project. We met at my house that afternoon, ate an entire chocolate cake, and got absolutely no work done at all. We've been inseparable ever since."  
"What about Tori?"  
"Tori moved to Houston when we were in eighth grade, and we didn't even know she was younger than us until we had to do a truth exercise in Beginner's Theater class. Two people had to go up to the front of the room and ask each other questions, and the person answering had to be truthful no matter what. When Tori told everyone she was only 12, Brandon, the one who asked the question, laughed at her. When he was walking back to his seat, Kendra tripped him, and he fell on his face in front of the whole class." She giggled. "Tori thanked her after class, and then I asked her to sit with us at lunch later and...well, the rest is history. Speaking of which," she said, turning to Zac expectantly, "did Corbin call her yet?"  
"I don't know...I just handed him the number and got out of there."  
Suddenly, Janelle's phone rang. "Is that a song from 'Rent'?" Zac asked as she fished it out of her purse.  
"Yeah, 'Seasons of Love'." Janelle opened her phone and smiled. "Tori's texting me...oh my God, Corbin did call her!"

Zac leaned closer to read the message with her. "'OMG Corbin called me. We talked 4 an hr. OMG I'm in luv'" he read. "This should be interesting," Zac said.  
"I know...she did think he was really hot. They would be so cute together..." Janelle looked at Zac, whose face was just inches away from hers. The end of her sentence trailed off, and she took a deep breath. They sat there, staring into each other's eyes.  
All thought had fled from Zac's mind. He just sank into those eyes. It felt like all of the oxygen in his body disappeared as Janelle moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. He didn't even think about it as he started to inch forward...


End file.
